Investing in Yourself
This text showed up on my phone yesterday afternoon. My good friend was doing the evening family shuffle when she got an unexpected invitation to do some amazing work for one of those the-kind-you-dream-about clients. They needed a marketing plan. Stat.
My friend’s one of those brilliant sales people, the kind who can sell ice to eskimos. She talks about her product and you drool, give her your credit card and say hit me up.
And she’s a pretty darn good writer. She’s had a couple of brilliant pieces published in various trade magazines, launched websites, and done great written work for clients.
She could do the plan herself.
But thing is, she knew she wanted help. She knew she could use another set of eyes and someone to brainstorm it with. She wanted to create the best possible plan in the shortest amount of time and knock his socks off. She wanted the business.
I cleared my desk; emails and links and notes flew back and forth. We did our research and our homework and collaborated between dinner and laundry. She outlined her vision and her strategy and her tactics. She rattled off targets and niche markets and acronyms I didn’t know (and it didn’t matter). The vision and the execution and the success is all on her. My job was simply to capture it and commit it to paper.
Less than 24 hours after she got the inquiry, she delivered a polished plan for his consideration.
My friend did what so many of us forget to do in our own professional quest. She invested in herself. She knew she could do it on her own, but it would likely be a better product with help. She spent a little bit of her own money to better position herself for a long-term pay-out.
I’m grateful she called and honored she turned to me for assistance.
And now we both sit on pins and needles waiting for her to hear back. Hopefully STAT.
In the meantime, though, it hit me. Investing in ourselves is the best investment in our careers, our future, our success. The complicated program I’m struggling to learn? I think it’s time I find someone to hire for a couple of hours and move the process along.
What about you? What’s your self-investment these days?